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Baker's Dozen

Survival Songs: John Grant's Baker's Dozen
Barnaby Smith , September 8th, 2021 09:05

John Grant takes tQ through the 13 albums that have defined his life and guided him through tough times, from the beauty of Fad Gadget to the joy of Bernard Fevre, via Ennio Morricone, Kate Bush and more

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Chris & Cosey – Exotika

This album is so essential to my musical DNA. I actually started to become friends with Chris & Cosey a while ago. I reached out by email and sent them the first Czars record. And they were so lovely to me – you can’t imagine how lovely those two people are. I wanted them to know they’d had a huge impact on my life, but of course you can’t hear it on the Czars record. Or maybe you can actually – there is some synth going on that they are directly responsible for. I was also inspired by them when I made Queen of Denmark, but again you don’t necessarily hear that. The inspiration you get from music isn’t necessarily because you want to make the same exact thing, it just makes you happy and puts you in a place where you can create whatever the fuck it is you need to do. I’m not trying to make a Chris & Cosey record, because I’m me and they’re them. Exotika is always out in my living room, displayed. In fact you can see it right now. It was one of the first CDs I ever bought, although I had it on vinyl before then. My favourite track is ‘Arcade’.